(Transcript from World News Radio)
The Colombian government has reached an historic agreement with leftist FARC rebels in a bid to end a decades-long conflict.
The two sides have agreed to de-escalate military action after two-and-a-half years of peace talks mediated by Cuba and Norway.
However questions have been raised over whether a long-term truce is achievable after numerous failed attempts in the past.
Michael Kenny reports.
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The historic breakthrough came after the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC agreed that it would observe a one month unilateral ceasefire.
FARC's Chief Negotiator Ivan Marquez made the announcement at a media conference in Havana.
"Today the Colombian people have conquered with a truce specific to the unilateral ceasefire announced by the FARC to begin July 20th and strengthened by the government's decision to answer this gesture and act decidedly to deescalate a clear path to the materialisation of a definitive bilateral ceasefire."
FARC rebels had been observing a unilateral ceasefire since December and it led to relative calm.
But clashes resumed in mid-April, following an ambush by rebels that left 11 soldiers dead.
FARC ended their truce in May and about 30 rebels have been killed in army operations since that time.
The chief negotiator for the Colombian government Humberto La Calle says he is more optimistic about the truce being observed this time.
"We are not going to repeat failed experiences. We are not going to just paralyse government forces for a simple illusion that will later prove frustrating to achieving an accord."
The conflict in Colombia dates back to 1964 and has left more than 220,000 people dead and displaced as many as six million.
Dr Peter Ross specialises in South American politics at the University of New South Wales.
He believes the latest peace deal has more of a chance of succeeding than previous efforts because of the involvement of a number of countries in the negotiations.
"Particularly Cuba and Norway who are the guarantor nations, Venezuela and Chile who sponsor the talks, and now we've got the U-S involved as well because President Obama in February this year named a Special Envoy to go to Havana to be at the talks as well."
Dr Ross says Colombia has struggled with a culture of violence over many years which also involves right-wing paramilitaries and drug gangs.
He says some members of the FARC movement may choose to ignore pleas from the group's leaders to end their armed struggle.
Dr Ross says there are still some other matters that need to be resolved to give the peace deal a better chance of long-term success.
"The talks have still not agreed with regard to demobilisation of the guerillas. That's a very difficult question as you can imagine because the FARC do know that when guerrila organisations also turned in their weapons and demobilised back in the 1980s and 1990s and tried to engage in electoral politics, then they were attacked by paramilitaries and something like three thousand of them were killed."
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